


Right Hand Recollections: Heart-to-Heart

by Dragonfire2lm



Series: Right Hand Recollections [2]
Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)
Genre: Copperright, Demiromantic Right Hand Man, M/M, Right Hand Recollextions AU, Time Loop AU, brief discussion of sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:41:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29555079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonfire2lm/pseuds/Dragonfire2lm
Summary: Direct sequel to Right Hand Recollections: Revelations of the Heart. Reading that is required otherwise this won't make sense.The timeline Right dreads the most has been avoided for the moment/Henry has been successfully rescued from The Wall.And Right's gambit with a pair of pink roses has paid off.Now, the following morning, he and Reginald sit down and have a much needed talk.A relationship is not an end, but a beginning.
Relationships: Reginald Copperbottom/Right Hand Man/Henry Stickmin
Series: Right Hand Recollections [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2163750
Kudos: 14





	Right Hand Recollections: Heart-to-Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Originally, this was going to be longer, with Henry actually making an appearance.
> 
> But I've been tired lately and stressing about not being able to get things done, which makes me more tired and more stressed...
> 
> And since this all ties into an ask blog I'm in the middle of preparing, By the time I had this much done, I didn't want to stress myself out further. I'm trying to get used to writing again, I haven't been able to write frequently for years mind you, so I just... feel like I should be doing more, you know?
> 
> I hope you like this.

Right Hand Man didn’t wake up so much as come back into focus. Staring at the ceiling of his private quarters his internal clock said it was five in the morning as his cybernetics powered up. Despite feeling physically rested, the Enforcer felt weariness cling like cobwebs to his mind.

He sat up, a spot of pink in the room catching his attention.

The pink felt rose pinned to the side of his hat brought a smile to his as the memory of last night washed over him.

_“I adore you, you absolute fool…”_

Like a cure-all, the adoration and love he felt for Reginald chased away the lingering clouds of fatigue, and as he busied about his room, getting dressed for the day, he eyed the long, dark red coat draped over the back of his desk chair. He had started wearing out of necessity, his cybernetics and internal systems still not yet fully acclimated to airship life.

But he slipped it on regardless, it had been a while since he’d worn it with purpose. Well over a century if his guess was correct. Being stuck reliving the last decade left him with a very distorted view when it came to the passage of time.

He grabbed his hat and put it on, reaching up to check the position of the rose and adjusting his hat slightly so it was in plain view. With a deep breath, Right prepared himself to face the day that lay ahead of him.

His brow furrowed as a thought struck him. What would he have to tackle first? The Idiot that was currently the chief, who had to be _rescued_ from The Wall? Or his-

He wasn’t even sure what to call Reginald now. His partner? Significant other? The word _boyfriend_ felt too immature, too _crass_ for a man of Reginald’s calibre. Internally scoffing at himself, Right left his room to head towards the cafeteria for some much-needed food.

He’d worry about things as they came up.

* * *

He watched Reginald practically light up as soon as he saw Right enter the cafeteria with a plate of food and a glass of juice. Right slid into the empty space next to the former leader at the same table they had sat at a day prior.

“Morin’,” Right said calmly. “How’d the mission go?”

The mission being the airship division rescue mission to retrieve Henry Stickmin from The Wall.

“I took your advice to heart, Henry’s passed out in his quarters sound asleep,” Reginald stated. “You look much better than you did last night.”

Right shrugged. The conversation lulled as Reginald took a sip of his morning coffee.

“I want to talk about last night.” Reginald said, and his eyes flickered up to where Right’s rose was on full display. In turn, Right glanced up at the pink rose pinned to Reginald’s own hat, a shoddily made thing with crooked petals, that Reginald wore with pride.

Right nodded. “Same, after breakfast?”

“Why not now? There won’t be anyone else here for another hour or two,” Reginald said. “And no one will bother us sitting this far back in the cafeteria.”

He did have a point, Right set down the piece of half-eaten toast back on his plate. “Alright, so who first?”

Reginald smirked, gesturing at the cyborg. “You’re the one in a time loop Right, by all means.”

Right stated at his plate, gathering his thoughts, sifting through the most important things to bring up, what questions to ask. He’d practiced this a hundred times yet suddenly being out on the spot had reduced his plans to dust.

“Suppose I’ll keep it simple,” he said, facing Reginald. “I’m the datin’ type, you gotta understand that Reg. I need a meaningful connection, I have to _care_ ‘bout someone before I so much as even think about a first date. Without that, there’s nothin’. People are jus’ that, people.”

“I know you don’t trust easily. I assumed it would also extend into your romantic life as well,” Reginald said and raised his hands in a placating gesture as Right opened his mouth to argue. “It’s how you think, in a sense, as opposed to me… I’ve loved you for quite some time. You could almost say it was love at first sight.”

Right blinked only able to muster up a stunned “What?”

“Well, you cut quite the imposing figure when you and your sister joined the clan all those years ago,” Reginald said with an embarrassed smile. “I’d asked her for advice on multiple occasions, before Terrence drove her off that is, but alas she was as clueless as you on that front.”

Right snorted. “Lora’s a bit like me in that department, dense as a rock that one. We sort of figured out together that we were different from everyone else, didn’t have crushes, didn’t date… Turns out we’re jus’ _different._ ”

“Good different or bad different?”

“There’s a word for it, that’s not important right now,” Right replied with a wave pf his metal limb. “I jus’ want to be with you, I don’t care about dates, or what we are. I won’t get in the way of our jobs, or the clan, but I want us to have time for ourselves. To jus’ _be_.”

Right continued quietly, keeping his voice low in case someone wandered in, doubtful given the earliness of the hour. “I’ve loved you for a long time Reg, _properly_ loved you. It’s been over a century for me, an’ I’m worried I’m going to scare you off because it’s been a hundred years or more an’ I’ve died, you’ve died an’ all I want is to punch Henry’s lights out, smash Terrences head in, an’ stay by your side forever.”

Reginald was blushing. He squeaked in embarrassment.

“Shit! Sorry-” Right began to backpedal only for Reginald to grasp his arm in a vice grip.

“It’s alright, it’s fine. Give me a moment.”

Right waited, watching Reginald compose himself.

Eventually, the grip on his arm loosened and Reginald cleared his throat.

“That was sweet, _terribly_ romantic and it caught me off guard,” Reginald said as Right raised a brow at him. “I wouldn’t say I’m a hopeless romantic but a _hundred years_?”

“Reg, you’re the most passionate, hardworking, considerate person I’ve ever met. You don’t see me as jus’ dumb muscle like Terrence or half the clan did. You cared an’ that mattered a hell of a lot in the old days even before time started going backwards on me,” Right said. “Remember how Terrence treated the Security an’ Civilian Divisions?”

Right knew Reginald remembered. Terrence treated the Security Division, the most skilled or experienced combatants in the clan, as disposable bullet sponges. And once numbers had dropped significantly, had turned his sights on the clanmates that ran legal businesses and offered other services to clan aside from being out in the field.

The Civilian Division was drafted into the ranks of fighters and gunmen against their will, and that was the last time either of them had seen Right’s sister. The Security Division nothing more than a distant memory with only three survivors, Right among them.

“We could look for her again you know,” Reginald said softly. “I’m sure she’ll come back once she finds out the Civilian Division has been reinstated.”

“I know where she is,” Right said gruffly. “I can’t put her at risk.”

“After we get the rocket launched then?” Reginald suggested.

“Yeah…” Right agreed.

_Assumin’ the rocket even launched this time._

“I believe we got off topic a bit there,” Reginald said. “I wanted, I had-blast it I had this all planned out…”

Reginald rubbed his eyes tiredly, sounding frustrated with himself. “We are adults, and we will discuss this properly…” he sighed and Right chuckled. “ _Shut up._ *ahem* What exactly would you be comfortable with?”

Right just blinked at him, confused and it took a moment for Reginald to catch on.

“Ah, that level of dense, I shall have to be _blunt_ ,” Reginald looked serious. “I meant regarding _intimacy_ Right, _sex_.”

For Right, the question was completely unexpected, he could have sworn he saw an error warning appear in his left eye for a moment as he spluttered.

“ _Reg!_ ” he hissed. “You can’t just…”

“I can and will, there’s no one else here and we need to discuss this.”

“I know, ‘m just-”

“Flustered?” Reginald asked with a Cheshire grin.

“Shut up…”

“And to think it took me being as blunt as you to get a reaction like this,” Reginald mused. “I quite like it.”

Right did too if he were being honest, being flustered was novel, _new_ and the fact that it was Reginald that triggered this response made it all the more welcome in his mind.

That didn’t excuse the situation though.

“… Funny,” the cyborg huffed. “Never thought about that stuff either, sleepin’ with someone an’ the like. Didn’t appeal to me all that much. Not like I have the experience to say otherwise mind, jus’ wasn’t high on my list of priorities.”

“So, you have no idea then,” Reginald surmised. “Something we’ll work on together. I don’t have much of a clue either, beyond what you already know, of course.”

Right nodded. For as long as he’d known the man Reginald had valued his personal space more than most people and any kind of physical contact beyond a handshake that Reginald didn’t initiate set the former leader on edge with a sharp-eyed level of observation that would put detectives to shame. Still, something niggled in the back of Right’s mind, and the question came spilling out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

“Do you like me like _that_ then?”

Reginald stared down into his coffee, face and neck flushed red. “…Possibly…”

Right shrugged and turned his attention back onto his neglected breakfast. “Okay.”

He smirked at the indignant noise the other man let out.

“That’s all? _Okay?_ ”

Right pointed at him. “Well, that’s normal isn’t it? ‘M fine with it. I don’t think I reciprocate that sort of thing jus’ yet, but we can talk it out as we go, an’ you can still do… _things_ by yourself yeah?”

Reginald smiled, looking at him in fond disbelief. “It’s endearing that you’re so _conservative_ …”

“I can’t help it…” the enforcer grumbled.

“Adorable.”

“Yeah yeah…”

“I truly do adore you,” Reginald said sincerely. “I love you, I want to make it clear you can tell me absolutely anything, no matter how pointless you think it is, this is new territory for the both of us and I will do everything I can to honour the trust you’ve given me Right.”

Right cracked a smile at that. “The feelin’s mutual, Reginald.”

The tender moment was broken moments by Right asking a single question.

“Does that make us boyfriends now or what?”

Reginald was highly amused as he answered. “Partners Right, we’re partners.”

“Alright then.”

**Author's Note:**

> https://askrighthandrecollections.tumblr.com/


End file.
